Windows Hello and the convenience of biometrics

One of the most touted features of the new Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 convertibles from Microsoft is Windows Hello, the biometric authentication technology that allows you to login using facial recognition. The feature is nice for desktop PCs and laptops: you use them looking at the screen.

That doesn’t happen on your mobile phone, and this is why the feature is not that convenient on smartphones, when most of the time the front camera is not facing you. Both Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL support Windows Hello, but they have no fingerprint sensor on them, and that’s a big miss.

I wouldn’t say they’re essential (yet), but I’d say fingerprint sensors will be commonplace in the near future. That will make this technology as essential and convenient as the camera or the speaker/audio jack have been (and still are) on our devices nowadays.

This is undoubtedly one of those little revolutions that has finally met its perfect match. Facial recognition and fingerprint sensors will become mainstream, but one makes sense for desktop users. The other -guess which one- makes sense on the mobile front.